A salmonella outbreak in Brisbane on Melbourne Cup Day left hundreds sick.

5,245 audits were undertaken in 2012/13 compared to 9,644 in 2011/12.

However, a council spokesman said the figure was attributable to a change in auditing procedure whereby investigations upon restaurants that have achieved four or five-star accreditation occur less frequently.

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"Prior to the introduction of EatSafe (in 2010) every licensed food business was audited every year," the spokesman said.

"As the performance of the food businesses increase, the number of mandatory inspections becomes less frequent."

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City Hall's EatSafe initiative ranks restaurants and food providers by a zero to five-star system.

Statistics released by council in July this year show the number of five-star rankings jumped by more than 10 per cent last financial year, while the number of establishments with four-star rankings grew from 16 per cent to less than 30 per cent.

Correspondingly, the number of zero and two-star ranked providers recorded significant drops.

Under current EatSafe guidelines, five-star restaurants undergo mandatory auditing every three years, while four-star rated establishments are audited every two years.

Three star providers are audited annually.

Council opposition leader Milton Dick said the mandatory time frames were not acceptable.

He said he believed they were due to cost cutting.

"I don't think that's good enough we need to have ongoing monitoring," he said.

"I think it's more to do with saving money and cost cutting, it's just a cop out by a council that seems to be cutting back more and more on basic services."

Cr Dick said this week's Brisbane salmonella outbreak, which was traced to a batch of bad eggs, demonstrated just how far a lapse in food hygiene could spread.

"Three years is just too long, the Lord Mayor talks about being a new world city, he should match his rhetoric with resources to make sure we do have world's best practice," Cr Dick said.

In July, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said since its introduction, 55 food outlets had been prosecuted under the EatSafe program, resulting in fines just less than $1 million.

"To have more than 90 per cent of the city restaurants now operating at a safe standard in under three years is a major coup for diners and our economy in general and shows the importance of this scheme," he said.